COVID In Colorado: Debate Continues Over Colorado Students Opting Out Of Standardized Testing
DENVER (CBS4) - The deadline to opt-out of CMAS testing for Denver Public Schools is this Friday, and it has many still divided over what to do.
"I personally opted my 3rd and 4th grader out this year, I probably will not do that next year," Amy Bergner said.
By now some have already made up their mind, and that means a percentage of kids will not be taking the test, Bergner also happens to be a DPS elementary teacher.
"It's the whole assumption that we're not doing any testing, and of course we are, we have unit tests, we have term test, we have all of that data," she said.
In 2020 the test was canceled because of the pandemic, this year students may opt-out, but the federal government has said it cannot be canceled. Those on the opposing side think standardized would be just an additional tool, possibly to gauge how far students have fallen behind, they also say, there's not much to lose.
"We were delayed in getting back to school, we're on a shortened school day, we were back in school for a little bit of time then sent back home, we want to use our time with students teaching them, not testing them," Bergner added.
The tests currently require students to come to school for the test regardless of remote learning status. It will be up to each school to decide what to assign students to do if they opt-out, according to DPS.
